It seems pretty clear to me that Garth Snow entered July knowing that he needed a number one goaltender for at least the first half of the season, and he moved quickly but without wasting money, signing Dwayne Roloson to a two-year, five million dollar contract.

It seems safe to say that he was open to various options at the backup position, but with Martin Biron desperately looking for an NHL job, signing him was an obvious move. Not only does Biron provide the Islanders with likely the best backup goaltender in the league (or Roloson, if things go that way)) but if DiPietro recovers in time to play midseason, Snow will have the option of trading him to whichever team watches their starter get hurt or implode performance-wise.

Snow, in short, built a completely new tandem for a cap hit of 3.9 million dollars. If either goaltender falters, he has an experienced and successful number one to replace him with.

This is a different approach than the Oilers have chosen to take. Despite the total lack of value of even a decent backup goaltender (Alex Auld, who started and did well in Ottawa last season, was traded earlier this summer for a 6th round pick – despite a reasonable salary), they’ve elected to hold on to untested 25-year old Jeff Deslauriers. They also elected to grab the man who was, in their opinion, the best goaltender on the market in Nikolai Khabibulin – signing the 36-year old to a four year, 15 million dollar contract.

My question is a simple one – which approach is better? Which tandem would you, as an NHL G.M., rather run with next season:

Biron/Roloson: 3.9 million dollars

Khabibulin/Deslauriers: 4.375 million dollars

I think that the Islanders have more effective tandem; if either goaltender slumps they have a legitimate starter to step into his role. Edmonton, in contrast, will be relying on a goaltender that has yet to prove he can be a reliable NHL backup if Khabibulin suffers more injuries like the ones that have nagged him since the lockout. I think (and I realize this isn’t something everyone will agree with me on) the Islanders got the best goaltender on the market in Biron – a younger player than Khabibulin who has posted better numbers in three of four seasons post-lockout.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Despite the fact that many people (including JW) pointed out that there were more starting goalies this year than available roster spots, that doesn’t change the fact that no one could have foreseen Biron or anyone of his calibre signing anywhere at $1.4M.

Yes you did. It's been infuriating. I want to believe that there is some deep unknown reason that Tambellini rushed to overpay. He must have had Heatley complaining about the lack of a goalie here as a concern. Much like Hossa raising the same questions last year. One surely must believe that or this organization is completely screwed. It's not even the dollars that are that bad, it's the years and dollars combined that seem crazy and are only amplified when compared to the Biron deal.

one thing that has been overlooked in this debate is that Bulin vs Calgary 29gp 22W 5L 2T 0OTL 3SOL 2.06GAA 0.931SVP
He’s got more wins against the godless flames than an other team in the NHL and he’s looking forward to adding to that total.
if Bulin can win 18 of the 24 games we play against the flames in the next 4 years this will be money well spent.

Reasons to play for the Islanders over Edmonton:
- It's New York
- Less travel (didn't they have the least travel in the league in the upcoming season?)
- No accountability
- Less Tax (significantly for top bracket guys like hockey players)
- It's New York
- It's not -40 in the winter
- Annonymity
- Doug Weight is probably more fun to be around than Ethan Moreau
- The team isn't going to run you into the ground like the Oilers would
- The owner is certifiably insane and could potentially end up making you the general manager
- Steve Staios isn't pushing every winger that rushes on top of you to slow them down, potentially ending your career twice a game
- Lastly, IT'S NEW YORK!

Reasons to play for the Oilers over the Islanders:
- Hypothetically your team is closer to competing (we ALMOST made the playoffs two years in a row)

To make the argument that Biron signed for 1.5 million in New York and the Oilers could have got him for that same 1.5 million is shortsighted. If I remember correctly Nylander took less to play in Washington (before they were a playoff team), Dany Heatley won't play here, Chris Pronger wouldn't play here, hell its questionable whether half the current squad wants to play here...

At this point, isn't the notion that the Oilers have overpaid ANYONE a moot point?

Low standards or not, who cares. So long as we hand the flickers there @sses on a platter.

Um, . . . well I care a little bit. 6-76-0 would be a little hard to take for me, even if we pounded the Flamers 15-0 every time out. That's a lot of craptacular teams beating us every game. Just saying.

Changes the "cheap tandem" theory alot. That's Luongo money. Depends what they get for Biron when they trade him, 6th round pick anyone? It's a good idea, they can deal him, or even if he has a sh*tty season who cares, 1 year contract on a team used to having a goalie on over a decade contract, a blink of an eye.

And even if they waive Biron and someone picks him up, what did they lose? Security for a 40 year old goalie while your starter recovers. A great move. However, not the right one for the Oilers July 1st. If Roli and Bulin signed to different teams on July 1 where would we be? We would likely have Biron on a 2.5-3.5 multi year deal not no 1.4 one year

~But... But, But... True Canadians should WANT to play in Canada. They should want to drive on ice after spending all day on ice. They should want to have their every move scrutinized... to never eat a meal, or go to a movie in peace. They should want to pay out huge portions of their salaries in taxes to governments that let child molesters roam free~

At least Horcoff was willing to take the big dollars to freeze with the rest of us, and keep a wary eye on his kids... But he won't be able to shield them from hearing at school about how their Dad "sucks" and is way "overpayed".~

Don't get me wrong; I love Canada. I love Edmonton. There might not be a better place on earth to live and raise a family... FOR BLUE COLLAR WORKERS. These guys live in a differnt universe. Can a Ferrari survive Edmonton roads? Khabibulin, Souray, Smyth, and Horcoff are among a very small group of players willing to rub elbows with the proletariat... BUT only for ABOVE market term and pay. The growing power and freedom of established players to control their own movement is the single biggest challenge facing the Oilers today.

In the spirit of this new pessimism, I propose the term "no movement clause" should be renamed the "no Edmonton clause". The term "unrestricted free agent status" should also be changed to "free from Edmonton status".

Um, . . . well I care a little bit. 6-76-0 would be a little hard to take for me, even if we pounded the Flamers 15-0 every time out. That’s a lot of craptacular teams beating us every game. Just saying.

I just thought about that compared to last season, and have come to the realization that I would totally have preferred a 6-76-0 record if it was made of 6 victories over the flames that were 15-0.

Seriously - top 5 pick (very likely first or second) and the ability to say "you got beat by the WORST team in history, 15 - 0 EVERY TIME you played us".

Would/could/will a cheap (relatively speaking) signing like the Biron signing piss off the players union, other tenders and their agents? Seems to me, if I was a still unsigned or soon to be free agent puck stopper I might be like, WTF Marty, you just squished my market value!
I don’t recall if there were any negative rumblings when Kariya signed for pretty much nothing to play in San Jose (I think it was San Jose)?

Two things:

1) This summer, it's pretty much every-goalie-for-himself. Take whatever you can get.

2) If I'm a free agent and see someone sign cheap, I get excited. The teams are going to spend X amount of dollars anyway, so the less they spend on other guys the more there is left to spend on me.

Be concerned, but stop throwing out that "Roli is a btter goalie b/c his sv % was higher" Khabi is a better goalie than Roloson. He's no Bobby Lou, but he is a step up.

I just hate everytime a player leaves here we put him on a pedestal and make him out to be better than he was. It happened with Smyth, Greene, J. Smith, and now Roli.

I don't see the point in rolling out sv % to prove who will help this team win more games. One guy had a much lower sv% than either of these 2, and he won 45 games. Who would you rather have on your team?

Khabibulin’s great against Calgary, but he stinks against the rest of the Northwest.

Ya, but now Colorado is crap. Minny remains to be seen, so against the top 2 Van and Calgary who would you want to kick more ass of? Yup, me too. Besides, Vancouver games are high scoring between us anyway, and rough - some of the best HNIC games of the year.

Victoria wrote:
People are concerned about him. It’s warranted. Get over it.
Be concerned, but stop throwing out that “Roli is a btter goalie b/c his sv % was higher” Khabi is a better goalie than Roloson. He’s no Bobby Lou, but he is a step up.
I just hate everytime a player leaves here we put him on a pedestal and make him out to be better than he was. It happened with Smyth, Greene, J. Smith, and now Roli.
I don’t see the point in rolling out sv % to prove who will help this team win more games. One guy had a much lower sv% than either of these 2, and he won 45 games. Who would you rather have on your team?

actually i think i would rather the guy with the better save %. if a goalie has a bad save% on a team that STILL wins. it means he is on a great team and is probably even crappier than his stats say.

as an example. Conklin had the 28th best SV% in the league (.909) but he only faced 939 shots. bad goalie, great team.
a good goalie will carry a higher % when facing alot of shots, even on a bad team.
like Tomas Vokoun, 2nd best with .926% and faced 1717 shots. the team lost alot, and his W/L record is crap. but who would you rather have?

so how exactly does a goalie help the team win if they arent saving the puck? just because a goalie has a good win/lose record, doesnt mean they are a better goalie. it just means the team is good.

@ Luc:
~But… But, But… True Canadians should WANT to play in Canada. They should want to drive on ice after spending all day on ice. They should want to have their every move scrutinized… to never eat a meal, or go to a movie in peace. They should want to pay out huge portions of their salaries in taxes to governments that let child molesters roam free~
At least Horcoff was willing to take the big dollars to freeze with the rest of us, and keep a wary eye on his kids… But he won’t be able to shield them from hearing at school about how their Dad “sucks” and is way “overpayed”.~
Don’t get me wrong; I love Canada. I love Edmonton. There might not be a better place on earth to live and raise a family… FOR BLUE COLLAR WORKERS. These guys live in a differnt universe. Can a Ferrari survive Edmonton roads? Khabibulin, Souray, Smyth, and Horcoff are among a very small group of players willing to rub elbows with the proletariat… BUT only for ABOVE market term and pay. The growing power and freedom of established players to control their own movement is the single biggest challenge facing the Oilers today.
In the spirit of this new pessimism, I propose the term “no movement clause” should be renamed the “no Edmonton clause”. The term “unrestricted free agent status” should also be changed to “free from Edmonton status”.

Haha, sadly I agree. The fact that Tambs signed Bulin to a contract that rivals anything Lowe did for an "overpay" should make it pretty clear that Edmonton pays a premium.

- Less Tax (significantly for top bracket guys like hockey players)
- It’s New York

Curious who told you that.

In Edmonton, they pay 39% tax...in New York with state tax and such, a player told me it is between 48-51% tax. That is a big difference when you are making a million+.

I've never looked at it, but that is what a player told me who played in both places. I would hope he knows what he is talking about, but when you see cases like Federov where a guy swindled him out of $43 million it makes you wonder.

Luc wrote:
- Less Tax (significantly for top bracket guys like hockey players)
- It’s New York
Curious who told you that.
In Edmonton, they pay 39% tax…in New York with state tax and such, a player told me it is between 48-51% tax. That is a big difference when you are making a million+.
I’ve never looked at it, but that is what a player told me who played in both places. I would hope he knows what he is talking about, but when you see cases like Federov where a guy swindled him out of $43 million it makes you wonder.

I missed the last part of your show today, and you said something about a threeway, would this be an oilers trade? Or something else?

kingsblade wrote:
except for the fact that in Edmonton he would have been certain of number one status. In New York he will have to fight for his minutes.
Biron wasnt aiming for 1.5 mil on July 1st. Thats a 3 week later salary

Oh I agree, I was just responding to his post about the benefits of signing in one city over the other.

Why are we reading about the Islander management??? Is this a desperate attempt to keep all eyes off of the pathetic Lowe/Tambellini duo. I call it smoke and mirrors and you can draw up your own conclusions. Why don't you write an article about how pathetic the Oilers organization is after the Heatley embarassment instead of bashing another team that have a star franchise player in John Tavares.

Tomas Vokoun, 2nd best with .926% and faced 1717 shots. the team lost alot, and his W/L record is crap. but who would you rather have?

So by that logic, you would rather have Vokoun than Brodeur, Lundqvist, or Luongo? Doubt it. While sv% is a good indicator, I would rather have a guy on my team that wins.

If my goalie stops all the shots he should stop, and lets in all but 1 breakaway/2 on 1/ ect. I would go to war with that guy.

Save % does not indicate compete level, when he raises his game, or makes the big save with the game on the line. It also doesn't show a goalie who lets in soft goals that kill the team's momentum, but stops the other 29/30.

I missed the last part of your show today, and you said something about a threeway, would this be an oilers trade? Or something else?

There has been speculation between a three-way involving Sharks, Oilers and Heatley, but Marleau has one-year left and has a no-trade clause. Why would he go from a first place team, to a team battling for the playoffs.

Plus the Oilers won't take him in exchange for Cogliano, Penner and Smid. That is an awful trade for the Oilers...giving up youth for a guy that is a UFA after one season.

The Sharks are sniffing around Heatley, but right now they have nothing that matches the Oilers' offer.

I don’t think you would like to see Lowe or Tambo tell you how to wipe your ass?

Knowing Lowe, he will just cause an Over-Wipe and then blab on about when he wipes he has 5 cup rings to wash after while Brian Burke only has one. And nobody will even notice Tambi until the Wipe is done and I'm washing my hands when he has a fiery speech explaining why the wipe was terrible and how he planned on getting bigger fingers for the next wipe.

The Sharks are sniffing around Heatley, but right now they have nothing that matches the Oilers’ offer.

They also have to clear about $9 million in cap space to bring Heatley in. Right now they sit $200,000 shy of the cap with only 10 forwards. If they plan to ice a full team, they'll need to do more than replace one guy going out with one guy coming in. (ie. Marleau out, Heatley in.)

San Jose is in crazy cap space trouble with not enough room to even sign 3 minor leaguers at league minimum. Any trade involving them is going to complicated to say the least.

@ Archy
I like to imagine the video is just Katz and Melnyk sitting in front of the camera flipping Heatley the bird. And Heatley coming to the slow realization he's sitting in the press box the next few years.